Suicide Bomber In Afghanistan

Suicide Bomber In Afghanistan, A suicide bomber attacked a funeral in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, a government spokesman said, in what appeared to be the Taliban’s latest strike against Afghans who have ties to the national government.

Among those killed in the bombing, which occurred in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan, were a member of Parliament, Abdul Mutaleb Baik, and a member of the provincial council, according to a spokesman for the provincial government. A number of Afghan intelligence agents and lower-level government officials were also thought to be among the dead.

The bombing took place shortly after 2 p.m. in the village of Begabad, with the attacker wading into a crowd of mourners and detonating the explosives, said the spokesman, Muhammad Tauhidi. Tauhidi put the death toll at 30, while the Interior Ministry said that more than 20 had been killed.

A number of officials and elders were attending the funeral, which was for the father of the chief of the provincial fire department, said Mualavi Muhammadullah Wursaji, the Takhar provincial council’s leader.

Neither the Taliban nor any of Afghanistan’s other insurgent groups immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. But suspicion quickly fell on the Taliban and its allies, who often single out Afghan government officials and people close to them. In September, a suicide bomber who was believed to be a member of the Taliban killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council and a former Afghan president.